Process and device for the treatment of textile material



PROCESS AND DEVICE FOR THE TREATMENT OF TEXTILE MATERIAL Aug. 12, 1969 H. FLEISSNER Filed July 7. 1965 INVENTOR HANS FLEISSNER 045g) 5' FIGS ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,469,898 PROCESS AND DEVICE FOR THE TREATMENT OF TEXTILE MATERIAL Hans Fleissner, Egelsbach, near Frankfurt am Main, Germany, assignor to Anstalt fiir Patentdienst, Vaduz, Liechtenstein Filed July 7, 1965, Ser. No. 470,077 Claims priority, appligation Gsermany, July 8, 1964,

Int. Cl. Dime 1/00 US. Cl. 8149.1 23 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention relates to a process and to a device for the treatment, especially the wet treatment and the drying of textile material, such as tow, slivers, top or the like, which is held in folded condition onto conveying means, preferably onto perforated drums, by a treatment medium which flows into the drums from the outside thereof, and which textile material is carried through the treatment chamber on those conveying means and in which device the fibers are subjected to a setting process during the treatment.

In order to keep the treatment devices and the treatment space as small as possible a method is known in which the textile material is subjected to the required treatment in folded condition. Especially for wet treatments, it is of advantage to treat the textile material in folded condition. Also, drying of the material in folded condition has made headway. However, the fibers of most textile materials have undesired properties, firstly, of resuming their natural crimp during the drying process and secondly of retaining the additional distortions which occur during the drying process. These properties of the fibers are described by the term setting.

Because of the good spinning capacity, the natural crimp of the fibers is desirable to a certain extent, whereas the additional distortions are highly undesirable.

If the textile material is dried in folded condition, the curvatures of the fibers at the breaks are fixed and cannot be completely removed subsequently. Furthermore, it has been found that the breaks of the textile material dry more slowly. These disadvantages are known; however, up to now they have been put up with or accepted in order to enable economic drying within a small space.

According to the present invention, it has been found that these disadvantages can be avoided in a simple way without any adverse effects on the economy of the method by treating, i.e., drying the textile material only partly in folded condition and/or partly in one and the same folded condition. According to the present invention, it is proposed not to retain the folded condition of the textile material during the entire treatment period, especially not during the complete drying process, but to unfold the textile material by adequate means and to continue the treatment either by folding the material anew or by combining the treatment in folded condition with a treatment in stretched condition. The treatment in "Ice stretched condition can take place either before, after, and/or in between the treatment in folded condition. In general, the material will be treated in stretched condition after having been treated in folded condition. By a suitable reduction of the rotating speeds of the individual drums, also an ironing effect can be obtained.

In principle, the aspects of the present invention and the process according to the present invention can be applied to all devices incorporating conveying means in which devices the textile material is dried in folded condition. However, preferably a device with sieve drums will be used for the aforementioned treatments in which devices the textile material in folded condition is held onto and guided along the sieve drums by a current of heated air which flows through the perforated drum jackets from outside into the drum interior. Devices incorporating sieve drums will be chosen because of the known advantages of these sieve drum dryers as compared with devices with other conveying means. It is known that drying devices with sieve drums excel by extremely short treatment times, great economy and exceedingly low space resuirements. As heretofore, the textile material can be folded onto the drum jacket preferably parallel or also radial to the drum axis and can be transported in this form. It is also possible to treat several tows and the like one beside the other in folded condition on sieve drums.

Furthermore, the invention offers the advantage that devices with sieve drums which are already in production can be subsequently equipped with an additional draw-off and folding device without any difficulty. The folding device which is subsequently installed, may work according to the same principle as the folding device in front of the plant. However, care is to be taken that the textile material is not folded at those very same points where it was folded by the first holding device but that the breaks of the textile material in the first treatment zone are abandoned in the subsequent treatment zone, i.e., that those breaks are now situated along the previously straight section of the textile material. Setting of the fiber in curved condition does practically no longer occur. If, however, any additional distortion of the textile material is to be definitely avoided, drying in folded condition will be followed by a final drying process in stretched condition. This final drying may, for example,

be done on two sieve drums which are infinitely adjust.

able and whose rotating speeds can be correlated in such a way that a good ironing effect is obtained in addition. This can be effected by rotating the second sieve drum at a higher speed than the first sieve drum while drawing the heated treatment medium through the material being treated on said sieve drums. The different rotational speeds stretches the material and the additional use of the heated treatment medium produces the ironing effect. Instead of the sieve drums also heated rollers which rotate at a high speed can be used or other means which are suitable and known which produces the ironing effect.

The means for changing the position of the textile material during the treatment may, for example, consist of two rollers which rotate at a high speed or of a .con-

veyor belt and a folding device, whereby the rollers or the conveyor belt serve for lifting the folded textile material from the sieve drums and for conveying it to another folding device or to a subsequent sieve drum.

The textile material can also be unfolded when passing from one perforated drum to the next by having the next drum rotate at an essentially higher speed. In general, the invention is applied to a device with several sieve drums. However, it is also applicable to a device which has one sieve drum only. With a device of the latter kind, the folded textile material is lifted from the drum after having passed over a partof the 3 drum and is then folded onto the drum jacket anew by means of another folding device.

It is also feasible that, when being folded anew, the textile material is laid onto the sieve drum or the sieve drums axially displaced and that it possibly passes the same drum again. According to another embodiment of the invention and with a device with several sieve drums, the textile material can be conveyed back to the intake after being first lifted from the sieve drums and can be folded onto any of the preceding sieve drums and thus pass again through the treatment chamber.

It is also of advantage if two of the known sieve drum dryers are connected one behind the other. In that case, either one of the folding devices can be provided in front of each dryer, if the material is to pass both dryers in folded condition, or the material can be passed in folded condition through the first dryer only and in stretched condition through the second dryer. By having the sieve drums of the second dryer rotate at varying speeds, the slivers can be ironed in the second dryer at the same time.

By applying the present invention, it is now also possible to use a dryer which has been designed preferably for loose fibrous material and which is equipped with an opener for the loose fibrous material between the sieve drums for sliver-type textile material by bridging the opener with means for changing the position of the textile material, for example, with a folding device. Naturally, also, other devices for intermediate treatments can be bridged in this way if this should be necessary or desirable.

The lifting and the new folding of the slivers offers another essential advantage; namely, that the textile ma terial is loosened up and thus better permeable to air. This promotes drying and either a dryer with fewer sieve drums can be used or the residence time of the material in the dryer can be shortened. Good loosening of the textile material is, above all, effected if folding devices with conveying cages-as already known-are used instead of solid rollers. The periphery of the cages is formed by rods which are arranged parallel to the cage axis and which are fastened to side walls.

The more frequently the material is lifted and folded anew, the better the loosening effect and the better the drying effect. Therefore, the present invention is by no means restricted to a single change of the folded condition of the textile material. Rather, it is desirable to fold the material to be treated anew as frequently as possible.

A permanent break of the fibers does not only occur during drying but also during a wet treatment to which the material is subjected in folded condition, i.e., if the liquid is removed from the material by means of squeeze rollers after the material has left the bath. In such wet treatment devices, preferably several baths are arranged one behind the other, and when passing from one bath to the next, the material is led through a pair of squeeze rollers.

If the textile material is transported through the bath by means of sieve drums, it can, for example, be folded radially onto the sieve drums. If the material passes the squeeze rollers while being folded in this way, breaks are produced which are most undesirable and which might cause a permanent break of the individual threads. According to the present invention, this disadvantage can be avoided by providing means which unfold the textile material in front of the squeeze rollers and which fold it anew after it has passed the squeeze rollers. When using sieve drums for transporting the textile material through the treatment liquor and in another embodiment of the invention, the textile material can be folded onto the sieve drums radially for example, by means of rollers or other suitable means and can be drawn off the sieve drums unfolded and transported to the squeeze rollers by means of conveyor belts.

Two embodiments of the invention are shown in the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a side view of a device according to the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a plan view of the device according to FIGURE 1; and

FIGURE 3 is a side view of another device according to the present invention.

Sliver-type textile material 1 coming from another device (which is not shown) is led by way of a deflector roller 2 to a conventional folding device 3 which folds the sliver-type material onto a conveyor belt 4. The folded textile material 1 is now guided to a perforated drum 5 arranged in a treatment bath. The liquor is sucked out of the interior of the drum 5 by means of a pump (which is not shown) so that the sliver-type textile material is held onto the drum jacket by the liquor which flows into the drum from the outside. As a result of the flow of the liquor through the textile material, the material is thoroughly wetted and transported through the treatment bath on the drum 5. From the bath, the textile material is transported, for example, by a rotating sieve belt 6 to another conveyor belt 7 and to a squeezing unit 8. For guiding the textile material into a drying device 10 another conveyor belt 9 is used in the device shown. The drying device 10 incorporates two sieve drums 11 and 14. The textile material is passed on in folded condition from the conveyor belt 9 to the first perforated drum 11 and it is held onto the drum jacket by a sufficiently powerful suction draft. The suction draft is created preferably by a radial fan wheel which is arranged at one of the two sides of the drtun, which fan wheel sucks air out of the drum interior and returns it into the drying chamber by way of heating devices. That portion of the sieve drum 11 and 14 which is not covered by the textile material is shielded in the usual way by a baffie plate 16 which facilitates lifting of the folded textile material from the perforated drum 11 or 14. In the device shown, the textile material is lifted from the drum 11 by a conveyor belt 12 which has an essentially higher rotating speed than the sieve drum 11. The conveyor belt 12 is preferably provided with an infinitely variable drive which makes it possible to adjust accurately the speed required for transporting the textile material in stretched form to the second perforated drum 14 by way of a folding device 13. Here the newly folded textile material is finally dried and lifted from the sieve drum 14 by a conveyor belt 15 from where it is passed on to further treatment. Instead of the two sieve drums 11 and 14 shown in this figure, the drying device 10 may be equipped with any required number of sieve drums.

If more than two sieve drums are provided, several sieve drums may be comprised in one drying zone, and the textile material may pass one drying zone in folded condition and the following drying zone either in stretched condition or in newly folded condition. Furthermore, a folding device connected in between two drying zones offers the advantage that the material can be guided on the sieve drums with a large angle of grip if this should be necessary or desirable.

In the device shown in FIGURE 3, the sliver-type textile material 1 coming possibly from a squeezing unit in front of the device can be folded onto a conveyor belt 22 by way of a pair of rollers 20 by means of a conventional folding device 21 and can be guided into a drying device 23. In the drying device 23 the folded textile material is taken over by sieve drums 24 which are subjected to a suction draft for holding the textile material onto the drum jacket.

The drying device 23 shown in FIGURE 3 is suitable for and has been designed for loose fibrous material as well as for sliver-type textile material. Therefore, and for improved, especially more uniform drying of loose fi brous material, an opener is arranged behind the two first sieve drums 24 which opener consists of a pair of rollers 25 and a spiked drum 26 as well as of a conveyor belt 27.

Since sliver-type material may not be passed through the opener and/or since it may not come into contact with the spiked drum 26, according to the presentinvention, the folded textile material is drawn oft the second sieve drum 24 and guided to a pair of rollers 28 arranged above the opener from which pair of rollers 28 it is folded by a folding device 29 onto a conveyor belt 27 and led to the following sieve drum 24. From the drying device 23 the dried textile material can be transported by way of a conveyor belt 30 to another device for further processing. In the device shown only three-sieve drums are provided. Of course, the device may be equipped also with a smaller or larger number of sieve drums.

When drying slivers, especially wide slivers, it was found that the final moisture content was not uniform but that the breaks, where the folded sliver is usually doubled, were wetter than the rest of the sliver.

Since, according to the invention, the same folded condition is not maintained during the whole process, the slivers are not doubled up all the time at the same points so that the final moisture content is much more uniform.

It is of advantage if the material is unfolded for the first time when it has a moisture content of 30 to 60 percent and if it is then either folded anew or dried in stretched condition.

While I have shown and described several embodiments in accordance with the present invention, it is understood that the same is not limited thereto but is susceptible of numerous changes and modifications as known to a person skilled in the art, and I therefore do not wish to be limited to the details shown and described herein but intend to cover all such changes and modifications as are encompassed by the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A process for the treatment of loose, unspun textile material which comprises impregnating the material to be treated with a treatment liquor, introducing said material in a folded condition into a drying chamber, partially drying the material in the folded condition by conveying it through a portion of said drying chamber, and removing the folds from the material with further drying before it is removed from the drying chamber.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the material is folded at right angles to the direction of conveyance of said material.

3. The process of claim 1, wherein after the folds have been removed, the material is again folded at different points in said material and further dried in its newly folded condition before it is removed from the drying chamber.

4. The process of claim 1, wherein the folds are removed by stretching.

5. The process of claim 1, wherein the material is conveyed through the drying chamber on sieve drums subjected to a suction draft.

6. The process of claim 5, wherein the material is stretched by rotating at least two successively disposed sieve drums at different rotational speeds, the second of of said successively disposed sieve drums rotating at a higher speed that the first of said successively disposed sieve drums, said sieve drums also producing an ironing effect by drawing a heated-treatment medium through the material disposed on said sieve drums 7. A- process for the treatment of textile materials in a loose, non-woven state which comprises impregnating the material to be treated with a treatment liquor, introducing said material in a folded condition into a drying chamber, partially drying the material in the folded condition by conveying it through a portion of said drying chamber on at least two conveying means, stretching the material by rotating at least two successively disposed conveying means at different rotational speeds, the second of said successively disposed conveying means rotating at a higher speed than the first of said successively disposed conveying means and further drying the material before it is removed from the drying chamber. 7

8. The process of claim 7, wherein after stretching the material is again folded at different points in the fibers and further dryed in its newly folded condition'before it is removed from the drying chamber.

9. The process of claim 7, wherein 'treatment in the stretched condition takes place before treatment in the folded condition. I l p l 10. The process of claim 7, wherein treatment in the stretched condition takes place between treatments in the folded condition. v

11. The process of claim 7, wherein treatment in the folded condition takes place before, treatment in the stretched condition.

12. The process of claim 7, wherein the material to be treated is folded before it is impregnated with the treatment liquor. l

13. An apparatus for the treatment of materials which comprises means for impregnating the material to be treated with a treatment liquor, a drying chamber containing a plurality of drum means rotatably disposed therein for conveying the material through said chamber, means for introducing the impregnated material into the drying chamber in a folded condition and conveyor belt means disposed above the drum means for lifting the material to be treated from said drum means and for stretching the material in the drying chamber.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the conveyor belt means is disposed after the first drum means.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein a folding means is located behind the conveyor belt means.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein means are provided for driving one of the drum means at a higher speed than the preceding drum means to unfold the material.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein folding means are provided in front of the impregnating means for folding the material prior to impregnation.

18. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the drum means are sieve drums subjected to a suction draft.

19. An apparatus for the treatment of materials which comprises means for impregnating the material to be treated with a treatment liquor, folding means for introducing the material to be treated to the impregnating means in a folded condition, a drying chamber containing a plurality of sieve drum means rotatably disposed therein for conveying the material through said chamber, said sieve drum means being subjected to a suction draft, means for introducing the folded material into the drying chamber, conveyor belt means disposed in the drying chamber after at least the first sieve drum means, said conveyor belt means provided with a variable drive means for rotating said conveyor belt means at a higher speed than the sieve drum means to stretch the material being treated, said conveyor belt means also lifting the material from the sieve drum means and returning it to a subsequent sieve drum means and means for removing the material from the drying chamber.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein folding means are provided after the conveyor belt means for refolding the material before it is returned to the subsequent sieve drum means.

21. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein squeeze roller means are disposed behind the impregnating means.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein unfolding means are disposed in front of the squeeze roller means.

23. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein folding means are provided at the inlet of the drying chamber.

24. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein after stretching, the material is deposited in a folded condition onto a conveyor belt before it is conveyed to a subsequent sieve drum means.

25. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein when the material being treated is loose fibrous material, it is conveyed in the drying chamber from a sieve drum means to an opener means which is disposed behind at least the first sieve drum means, said opener means comprising a spiked drum means having feed roller means associated therewith and conveyor belt means disposed beneath said spiked drum means for conveying the loose fibrous material to the next sieve drum.

26.. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the folding means and conveyor belt means can be provided in any combination throughout the apparatus.

27. An apparatus for the treatment of materials which comprises means for impregnating the material to be treated with a treatment liquor, folding means for introducing the material to be treated to the impregnating means in a folded condition, a drying chamber containing a plurality of sieve drum means rotatably disposed therein for conveying the material through said chamber, said sieve drum means being subjected to a suction draft, means for introducing the folded material into the drying chamber, roller means disposed in the drying chamber after at least the first sieve drum means, said roller means provided with a variable drive means for rotating said roller means at a higher speed than the sieve drum means to unfold and stretch the material being treated, said roller means also lifting the material from the sieve drum means and returning it to a subsequent sieve drum means and means for removing the material from the drying chamber.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein after stretching, the material is deposited in a folded condition onto a conveyor belt before it is conveyed to the subsequent sieve drum means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,996,808 8/1961 Fleissner 34-115 X 685,949 11/ 1901 Seither 68-5 694,640 3/1902 Hebden 68-5 1,220,268 3/1917 Payet 68-158 2,443,990 6/ 1948 OKeeffe 68-5 3,011,266 12/1961 Fleissner 68-5 3,087,320 4/1963 Fleissner 68-19 3,242,702 3/1966 Fleissner 68-5 FOREIGN PATENTS 176,606 11/1906 Germany.

WILLIAM I. PRICE, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

